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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (March 9, 2023) -- Registration for the third annual Mission and Installation Contracting Command Advance Planning Briefing for Industry taking place this week tops more than 1,400.
The virtual APBI event is the MICC’s single, command-wide effort for 2023 allowing small business and large industry representatives to hear from leaders and senior contracting officials across the Army as well as learn about forecasted requirements in support of varied Army mission partners.
APBI participants heard from acquisition leaders at the MICC, Army major command and Army levels.
“It is my vision to leverage the way we communicate with our industry partners. These virtual outreach opportunities reduce the barriers to competition and increases the transparency of information that we’re share,” Brig. Gen. Doug Lowrey, the MICC commanding general. Lowrey went on to say that the virtual industry outreach was the result of the COVID pandemic that “forced us to adapt fast to ensure we preserve the highly critical support of our small business industry partners providing the supplies and services upon which our Soldiers rely.”
Clay Cole, the executive deputy to the commanding general for the MICC, spoke on the command’s contributions in helping higher headquarters and the Army meet their respective small business socioeconomic goals. He said about 50 percent of the more than $5 billion in contracts executed by the MICC each year are awarded to small businesses.
“We also recognize that small businesses and small business enterprises are the major employers of the United States as well as the predominant tax base,” Cole said. “We consider small business not only important to the Army but important to the national economy in the aggregate.”
In addition to MICC leaders, participants heard from J. Randall Robinson, the executive deputy to the commanding general for the Army Installation Management Command, and Michael Formica, the deputy to the commanding general for the Army Training and Doctrine Command, who provided an overview on their respective contract needs on the first day.
Kimberly Buehler, the director of the Army Office of Small Business Programs, also spoke on the Army’s focus areas of people, readiness and modernization.
“We understand that small businesses are bringing us the innovation that will enable the technologies of Army 2030,” she said. “The MICC is a critical component in the Army’s ability to achieve great things for small business, and I appreciate your partnership.”
Subsequent days of the APBI were dedicated to identifying forecasted contract needs by each of the MICC’s two contracting support brigades and two field directorate offices. Following the completion of the APBI at the end of this week, the MICC will survey participants to gain feedback for developing better determinations for reaching out and engaging small business representatives.
Also, approximately 30 days from the end of the event, slide presentations as well as video recordings of the event will be posted to the SAM.gov event site for those who may have missed the event or want to revisit a particular briefing. Recorded briefings from the 2023 APBI will be posted to the MICC YouTube site at https://www.youtube.com/@army-micc/videos by early April.
About the MICC:
Headquartered at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Mission and Installation Contracting Command consists of about 1,300 military and civilian members who are responsible for contracting goods and services in support of Soldiers as well as readying trained contracting units for the operating force and contingency environment when called upon. MICC contracts are vital in feeding more than 200,000 Soldiers every day, providing many daily base operations support services at installations, facilitate training in the preparation of more than 100,000 conventional force members annually, training more than 500,000 students each year, and maintaining more than 14.4 million acres of land and 170,000 structures.
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